In some ways hiding a night cache is just like hiding any other cache. A traditional night cache that uses FireTacks if very easy to set up and very easy to complete. Not all night caches are that easy. You can have fun with your night cache creation making it as much or more fun for people to seek your cache. This Thursday John will make his third appearance on GeoGearHeads to discuss hiding night caches. In preparation for that interview we’ve created some tips that you can apply to your night caching creations.

1. Some people will try and find your cache during the day. Some night caches can be completed during the day by brute forcing the cache. This can happen with FireTack caches. A determined cacher can hunt for the small FireTacks and use that to find the location of the cache. That’s one of the reasons we asked WildTech to make a Stealth GeoTack. We wanted to make it just a bit harder to brute force a night cache.

2. Some people will try and find your cache at three or four in the morning. This could be said about any cache. Keep in mind that people walking around at night with flashlights can un-nerve muggles if you are in an urban or suburban environment. Try and keep night caches away from places where you might look suspicious searching for the cache. Who are we kidding, you are always going to look a bit strange to muggles when night caching. Be prepared to explain what you are up to. I have only ever been approached by the police once when night caching and that’s because the cache was too close to a home and required a lot of searching.

3. Think outside the box. FireTacks are the traditional night cache and are really fun to do if you’ve never seen a night cache before. The cachers behind BFL Boot Camp work hard to bring interesting and innovated clues to the geocaching experience. Annual late night event is a much anticipated event for anyone that enjoys getting out at night. In previous years caches have involved elements such as: glow in the dark, fiber optics, persistence of vision, Fire Tacks deployed in an interesting way, polarized light, electronics and much more. If the log entries from BFL Boot Camp caches are any indication, cachers enjoy out of the box thinking.

4. A great location during the day is not always a great location for a night cache. Many urban parks close at dusk. An ideal location is available 24/7 or at the very least has set closing ours, like 10 or 11pm. Your best bet for a good night cache location is in a a location that is not managed by a municipality. Cities and towns tend to have stricter hours then parks managed by higher levels of government.

5. Try something really new. The Laser Loci is a laser activated geocaching clue that you program via your phone or computer using nothing but light! One of the great things about a Laser Loci is that it cannot be activated during the day. When a Laser Loci detects daylight it goes in to sleep mode. It only because active after dark. Add the special tool attribute to your cache and keep other geocachers guessing.

Have you ever hidden a night cache? Why not tell us about it. Visit our Facebook page and share a link to your cache page.